Technical Field
The technical field relates to a method for detecting a printing status and more particularly relates to a method for detecting a characteristic of a forming material and a three-dimensional printing apparatus.
Description of Related Art
As technology advanced in the recent years, many methods that utilize additive manufacturing technology (e.g. layer-by-layer model construction) to build three-dimensional (3D) physical models have been proposed. Generally speaking, the additive manufacturing technology is to transfer data of the design of a 3D model, which is constructed by software, such as computer aided design (CAD), to multiple thin (quasi-two-dimensional) cross-sectional layers that are stacked in sequence. In the meantime, many techniques for forming thin cross-sectional layers are also proposed. For example, a printing module of a printing apparatus is usually configured to move above a base along an XY plane according to spatial coordinates XYZ constructed according to the design data of the 3D model, so as to use a construction material to form shapes of the cross-sectional layers correctly. By moving the printing module along the Z axis layer by layer, multiple cross-sectional layers can be gradually stacked along the Z axis, and while the construction material is cured layer by layer, a 3D object is formed.
Take the technique of forming the 3D object by curing the construction material with a light source for example, the printing module is adapted to be immersed in a liquid forming material contained in a tank, and a light source module is used to irradiate the liquid forming material, used as the construction material, on the XY plane, so as to cure the liquid forming material and stack it on a forming platform of the printing module. Accordingly, by moving the forming platforms of the printing module layer by layer along the Z axis, the liquid forming material can be gradually cured and stacked to form the 3D object. However, it should be noted that different liquid forming materials may have different material characteristics. For this reason, correct control printing parameters need to be set to the three-dimensional printing apparatus according to the type of the liquid forming material. If the control printing parameters set to the three-dimensional printing apparatus do not match the type of the liquid forming material, printing failure or poor printing quality may occur. In addition, in the process of stacking the forming material layer by layer to form the 3D object, the material characteristic of the liquid forming material may change with time and cause the control printing parameters of the three-dimensional printing apparatus to fail to match the type of the liquid forming material. Therefore, how to improve 3D printing speed and quality is still an important issue in this field.